Prepping for the Scottish Festival

Shibori dyeing, weaving, and quitting my job

This coming Saturday is the 2nd annual Rocket City Scottish Festival—and also my second year as a vendor. Since I did so well last year, I decided to return for another year, hoping I’ll do at least as well as last year. I’ll be selling handwoven scarves, home items, and hand dyed kitchen towels (for those who just want something inexpensive, but homemade/useful).

I spent most of the weekend dyeing kitchen towels (100% cotton) using Shibori (resist-dye) methods. These towels are fairly easy to dye and are fun to make, so I bought 20 blanks to dye before the festival. I learned this style of dyeing almost a decade ago, and when I’m doing it, it’s all I want to do (until my back starts aching from standing so long at the dye pot). This is one of my favorite classes to teach—one that anyone can do.

Shibori dyed kitchen towels

I finished up a weaving project on my 15” Schacht Cricket loom—4 mug rug coasters woven with handspun raw fleece conservation breed wool (CVM & GCN) for the weft, and a wool/cotton/silk warp. These will also be available at the Scottish Fest.

Mug Rug Coasters (handspun raw fleece weft)

One project is almost complete on my 32” Kromski Harp loom—a lamb’s wool/cotton blend yarn (Mirasol Kancha) in various shades of yellow. I’ve used this yarn for another weaving project and liked the results…and since the yarn had been sitting in my stash for a while, I decided it was time to use it. I used a spaced warp for this project, so the drape will be a little different than the last balanced warp scarf I wove from this yarn.

I’m going to attempt to weave several more scarves this week, but we’ll see how many time will allow and I’ll give an update in my next post.

Kancha blue scarf woven from the same yarn that is on my loom now

I am officially a Schacht Spindle Co. dealer since they now offer accounts for fiber arts teachers. I’m expecting a shipment of frame looms to arrive in the coming weeks before my upcoming frame loom weaving class at the Carnegie Visual Arts Center. I’m anticipating teaching there a good bit in the future…and hopefully other art museums in the area now that my schedule has opened up.

I officially quit my full time job last Thursday after attending our town’s budget meeting. I had told myself I would give them 2 years of my life unless they could seriously bump up my pay to a reasonable wage for the 3+ positions I was filling. They decided on a 3% pay increase for everyone (they don’t reward individuals based on performance)—which meant .42 cents more/hour for me. I typed my resignation, turned in my keys, and said adieu. I’ll still be involved at the library while the new director transitions, but other than that, I’ve wiped the dust from my feet.

The good news is that I can now be full time in the fiber arts again—something I had missed desperately during my 2 years at the town. Instead of waking up feeling like a hopeless drone, I get to wake up to endless possibilities. So…onward!